Road to ruin + Economic policy | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/business/series/road-to-ruin+politics/economy
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Dan Roberts: Debt has become a drug. Withdrawal will be painfulhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/30/uk-economy-debt-credit-crisis
This week's reports showed how firmly the addiction had taken hold. We now have to build a new kind of economy<p>Ever since the aptly named fraudster Bernard Madoff reminded us of the power of hiding lies in plain sight, a trickle of other fund managers have begun to own up to similar pyramid schemes: crawling out of their Florida beach homes to admit they, too, fabricated their dizzying investment returns.</p><p>Using new money to create fictitious returns for existing investors - also known as a Ponzi scheme - is one of the oldest tricks in the book. But as the scale of the carnage in the wider financial system becomes apparent, it is time to wonder whether we have all been suckered in to a form of pyramid fraud.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/30/uk-economy-debt-credit-crisis">Continue reading...</a>RecessionEconomicsCredit crunchEconomic policyBankingBusinessMoneyPoliticsBorrowing & debtFri, 30 Jan 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/30/uk-economy-debt-credit-crisisDan Roberts2009-01-30T00:01:00ZTwenty-five people at the heart of the meltdown ...http://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jan/26/road-ruin-recession-individuals-economy
The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part. In the second part of a week-long series looking behind the slump, Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis<br /><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/poll/2009/jan/26/road-to-ruin-recession">Poll: Who led us down the Road to Ruin?</a><p><strong>Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006</strong><br />Only a couple of years ago <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/17/george-bush-alan-greenspan ">the long-serving chairman of the Fed</a>, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with star status, named the &quot;oracle&quot; and &quot;the maestro&quot;. Now he is viewed as one of those most culpable for the crisis. He is blamed for allowing the housing bubble to develop as a result of his low interest rates and lack of regulation in mortgage lending. He backed sub-prime lending and urged homebuyers to swap fixed-rate mortgages for variable rate deals, which left borrowers unable to pay when interest rates rose.</p><p>For many years, Greenspan also defended the booming derivatives business, which barely existed when he took over the Fed, but which mushroomed from $100tn in 2002 to more than $500tn five years later.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jan/26/road-ruin-recession-individuals-economy">Continue reading...</a>Global recessionRecessionCredit crunchBankingUS economyEconomic policyMoneyBusinessUK newsGlobal economyWorld newsMortgagesMon, 26 Jan 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jan/26/road-ruin-recession-individuals-economyMark Wilson/Getty ImagesFormer Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who backed sub-prime lending. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesMark Wilson/Getty ImagesFormer Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, arrives at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing about U.S. oil dependence Capitol Hill June 7, 2006 in Washington DC. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesJulia Finch, with additional reporting by Andrew Clark and David Teather2009-01-26T00:01:00Z